or redstone ... but that tends to be hard to come by, so best to build in "creative" rather than "survival" mode. ;)

Identify the source, and route around it?

Stop tampering with your telescreen. The thought police will be by shortly to ensure compliance.

"Midnight" = Imminent global thermonuclear war (or, these days "catastrophic climate change")
"x Minutes to Midnight" = Indicator of how close international tensions are to breaking (or, "catastrophic climate change" -- however they define that).

Thing is, I will agree that the clock's usage is pretty awful -- it's updated infrequently enough that it can only be considered as an indicator of the tensions for the few days before and after the actual update. For example, the Cuban Missile Crisis - arguably the closest humanity has come to total annihilation - was resolved in between updates to the clock, and as such did not effect a change to the clock in 1962.

<quote><p>To be fair, they wouldn't have to attack 18,000 theaters to achieve the desired effect. One or two would be quite sufficient. I still don't think the release of the movie should be stopped, of course. At the very least, have it up on Netflix and Amazon Prime asap. Or even better, put it up as a DRM-free download straight from Sony. That may be the best PR move Sony could make at this point.</p></quote>

Migt be DRM Free ... but it'll still be riddled with all the best rootkits in their arsenal.

<quote>So, a bot will be giving advice to drunk college freshmen to act reasonably...

Sure, we all know how well it works when you (as a real human who cares) say to someone: "Dude,don't do that please, it's stupid, you're drunk and you're gonna regret it"...</quote>

"Shutup and hold my beer. This is gonna be awesome!"<br/>
(2 hours later, in the ER) "So ... 'awesome', huh?"

Or, you can just use "Horse Battery-Staple Correct!"

Weber grill with a "smokenator". Will set you back about $200 (less if you pick up the grill around a holiday weekend - labor day weekend is usually the best here, since Sept is pretty much the end of grilling season)

So, if I call TWC (evil cable co in my area), and tell the L1 moron "Shibboleet", I get transferred to you, right? =]

<quote>I prefer DFENESTRATE, or in extreme cases, DCAPITATE.</quote>

Too bad DFENESTRATE is a windows-only application.

Pretty sure you're thinking of the Cybermen there. Daleks don't upgrade anyone ... they just exterminate.

Or perhaps back then, when the only thing you did with your phone was call someone, and the most battey-taxing displays were 2" square, had 256 colors, and were on for a grand total of 30 seconds before you made a call has something to do with the fact that the batteries "lasted longer". Has nothing to do with having "relatively poor ability to hold a charge" but everything to do with "hey, I'm just gonna play a few rounds of Angry Birds while I'm waiting for them..."

I mean, seriously, my standard battery in the GS4 is 2200 mAh -- nearly double the one in my old flip-phone (IIRC, ~1200 mAh) ... just because I only "get" 2 hours of having the phone run flat out doesn't mean the battery is at fault ... It just means that, running flat out, the phone requires about 3.6v @ 1 amp to run, and the battery can supply that for just about 2 hours before running dry.

no no, they're talking about the PADD.

Amtrak runs over CSX/NS/UP/etc.-owned trackage with infinite-length trackage rights (i.e. ability to travel over "foreign" rail) due to the US government taking over the (failing) passenger rail service from the former large railroads (NKP, PRR, NYC, etc.) in 1971.

Amtrak says they have service to Altoona, Ardmore, Coatesville, Connellsville, Cornwells Heights, Downington, Elizabethtown, Erie, Exton Greensburg, Harrisburg, Huntingdon, Johnstown, Lancaster, Lantrobe, Lewistown, Middletown, Mount Joy, North Philadelphia, Paoli, Parkersburg, Philadelphia (30th Street), Pittsburgh, and Tyrone. Granted that most (if not all) of these stations probably have service at some godawful time, like 0300, due to proximity to NYC, and the schedule between NYC and Chicago (1 train daily, leaving at approx 1800, and arriving at the other end at approx 0600 the following morning).

that would be SILICONE ...